Shropshire butcher calls for longer sentence after van torched
A Shropshire butcher whose specialised van was set fire to said the culprit’s jail sentence was not long enough.
Jack Boswell also smashed a rear window at the property of Shepley’s Butchers in Market Drayton in the early hours of April this year.
He was jailed for a total of two years and four months at Shrewsbury Crown Court.
Owner of the business Scott Shepley said: “I am glad he is going to jail.
“However I do think the sentence should have been a lot longer.
“The damage has cost me about £40,000 as we had to buy a new van and the insurance only paid £5,000 of it. It has been a huge financial blow.
“We were lucky our CCTV was very good and recorded a good image of him. I also have alarms that are wired up to alert the police and me as soon as they go off.”
The incident came just four months after Boswell, aged 28, had been given a 24-week suspended sentence for assaulting police and criminal damage. Boswell, of Wylie Court, Market Drayton, had admitted charges of arson and criminal damage.
Recorder Peter Rouch QC said Boswell had a bad record, particularly relating to criminal damage, and it was aggravated because it was just four months into the suspended sentence.
He jailed Boswell for two years for arson offence, three months concurrent for breaking a window and activated four months of a suspended sentence. The court heard that Boswell was seen on CCTV stripping off one layer of clothing and setting it alight inside the cab of a Mercedes Sprinter van belonging to the butchers on Shrewsbury Road in Market Drayton.
Mr Dafydd Roberts, prosecuting, said the smouldering cab of the refrigerated vehicle was seen and the fire service alerted but the cab was burned out and the van had to be written-off.
It was later discovered a rear window at rear of the premises had been broken causing £400 damage. Mr Roberts said that Boswell had dropped a set of headphones nearby and his DNA was recovered and he was arrested.
The CCTV footage showed that Boswell was wearing two pairs of trousers and had peeled off track suit bottoms, gained entry to the cab and set the clothing alight.Mr Brendan Reedy, for Boswell, said his client had a well-paid job as an agricultural tyre technician, but the root cause of his offending was the use of drugs which in April this year had ‘gone off the scale’.
